Pink Floyd at Pompeii

 I think I first heard Pink Floyd in 1971 or 1972, with Atom Heart Mother and Meddle.

And my first concert was in January 1973, at the Palais des Sports in Paris, where Pink Floyd accompanied Roland Petit's ballets: an unforgettable sensory, visual and aural experience!

The official release of the restored video and remixed album Pink Floyd at Pompeii, - MCMLXXII brings back many memories - I remember seeing the film on French public television when I was young, and I was able to buy a bootleg CD of the soundtrack.

The sound of the double CD remixed by Steven Wilson is flawless,  excellent. It perfectly recreates what Pink Floyd sounded like live in the 70s.

I've never stopped listening to and loving this music. I grew up with it. It made me dream and fly in the outer (or inner?) space...

Listening to this soundtrack again, in the near-perfect version of this remix, inspires me to reflect on a few things...

Firstly, the perfect synergy of a band where everyone's talents contributed to an overall sound and feel. This is as true for the vocals - Rick Wright and David Gilmour on Echoes - as it is for the alchemy of the overall instrumental sound, lead guitar, keyboads, bass, drums.

 
Pink Floyd's music has always had a strong identity in the field of progressive rock... It didn't rely on the virtuosity of its instrumentalists, like Yes, for example. After their debut with Syd Barrett, they broke away from the pop song format. It embraced a certain sonic experimentation not found in Genesis or King Crimson, but rather in Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze (who influenced whom? The subject is still open...).

With relatively classic instrumentation (the VCS 3, if I'm not mistaken, only appeared with The Dark Side of the Moon), but boundless inventiveness, in the use of effects (delays, loops...) as well as in the sequence of climates (A Saucerful of Secrets, Echoes, One of these Days) and dramatic climaxes (Careful with that axe, Eugene), Pink Floyd invites listeners on psychedelic journeys, inspiring multiple images and sensations.
 

Pink Floyd at Pompeii  remains astonishingly innovative and ground breaking, more than fifty years after this recording.

The instrumental sound remains magnificent, between Rick Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitar.

Nick Mason brings a unique percussive swing, enhanced tenfold by his recorded loops.

The whole thing floats in an unlikely, vintage space of time, no doubt... I find that the abstract sound effects on  Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun or A saucerful of secrets remain unrivalled today - from the echo on Rick Wrigh's keyboard playing and Gilmour's guitar to the loops of Nick Mason's drums.

Limited technical resources were compensated by boundless inventiveness...

We hear musicians immersed in an unprecedented experimental trip, who have found in concert situations, with or without an audience, a unique space for expression and creative expansion...

I never tire of listening to these vintage musical trips...

Pink Floyd's music, from the 70s, tells stories, explores territories, maps out possible universes, explores the depths of our imaginations... It leads listeners to immerse themselves in sound worlds that hybridize genres - blues, rock, electro-acoustic experimentation - to generate their own images and inscribe their own memories, over the course of live performances that weave multidimensional sound with the sensory bombardment of light shows out of the ordinary since the early days...